To Be Young Again
by Taneya
Summary: When Naruto is hit in the head by a wayward kunai during training, his mind is unbalanced. Now Naruto's friends are stuck with a demon host that can't remember anything beyond his seventh birthday. What dark memories lie barely hidden inside his mind?
1. Between a Kunai and Jutsu

Dislaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. I belong to me. My multiple personalities are debatable.

To Be Young Again

Chapter One: Between a Kunai and Jutsu

"Alright," the jonin said with a concealed grin that was covered by the cloth mask over most of his face. He was tall, with spiky silver hair that jutted up and to the side, with his Konoha headband covering his left eye. With the combined effect of the mask and the headband, only his right eye was visible, and it was currently closed in an upside-down 'u' shape. He wore a green vest with several pockets over a long-sleeved navy shirt with a red swirl on the bicep of one sleeve. He also had dark blue pants with white wrappings and blue shinobi sandals. He had a weapons pouch strapped to one leg over more white wrappings. His name was Hatake Kakashi, also known as Sharingan Kakashi or the Copy Ninja.

"Today, we're all going to learn a new jutsu," he said to his students in a calm, laid-back voice, opening his eye to reveal a black iris that blended with the pupil. His students were three twelve-year-old genin, two boys and a girl. The first boy was dark haired and fair skinned, with an unusually elegant face for a twelve-year-old child. He had narrow black eyes and an effeminate face. He wore a blue, wide collared shirt with a stylized red and white hand-fan on the back. He wore long, off-white shorts with a weapons holster strapped to one leg. He also wore navy blue shinobi sandals and white arm warmers; a metal plate with a stylized leaf set on dark blue cloth rested on his pale forehead. His name was Uchiha Sasuke.

The girl was reasonably pretty with short pink hair and emerald green eyes. Her hitai-ate was worn as a hair-band, contrasting with her unusual hair. She wore a short-sleeved red dress with a white circle on the back, along with a pair of dark, form-fitting shorts underneath. She too, had blue shinobi sandals. Her name was as flowery as she looked; Haruno Sakura.

The third and last student was a boy with spiky blonde hair that seemed to _scoff_ at gravity (well, all of their hair did). He had large, brilliant blue eyes and tanned skin, with six black lines on his face; there were three on either cheek, giving him the appearance of having whiskers. He had a round, innocent face with a short, thin body. He wore a zipped-up orange jacket with blue patches on the shoulders and a red swirl on the back; underneath the jacket he wore a dark tank top over a fishnet shirt, with a crystal necklace resting on his chest. He also wore orange pants with a weapon holster strapped to one leg, and blue shinobi sandals on his feet. His name was Uzumaki Naruto.

"Really Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "You're really going to teach us a new jutsu?"

"Of course he is!" Sakura interjected, hitting Naruto on the head with such force that he was slammed into the ground face first. "He just said he would!" She sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "You're such an idiot sometimes, Naruto."

"Hn. Loser," Sasuke said with a smirk. He stood in a 'cool' pose; his hands were in his pockets and he was leaning back slightly.

"_What did you say, bastard?!_" Naruto bellowed, leaping to his feet. He staggered a bit, but regained his bearings quickly and proceeded to shoot the best 'death-glare' at Sasuke that he was able to muster. One hand was raised in a fist, his other fist clenched at his side. He had one leg forward and bent, the other leg straightened behind him in what looked something like a stretch.

"Calm down, calm down," Kakashi drawled in a strangely bored yet sickeningly cheerful voice. "Now, this jutsu is sort of like Naruto's Orioke no Jutsu, in that you actually _change_ your body rather than use just an illusion. It is a jutsu that changes you into your younger self, chakra reserves and whatnot included; which means you can't put your opponent off-guard by looking like a toddler and then blasting them with an A-class jutsu," Kakashi explained, his arms crossed over his chest. "Sorry Sasuke," he added, with another 'eye-smile'.

"This jutsu is unusual in that it doesn't have a name, and it only requires handsigns and chakra. The handsigns are tiger, rat, boar, bird, monkey, bird, rat," Kakashi listed lazily, demonstrating the signs for his students. "Picture how you looked when you were five or so. This jutsu requires a fair amount of chakra, so be sure you don't…tire yourselves out. Start practicing!" he said cheerfully, taking out his infamous orange book and squatting at the base of a nearby tree as he began to read. All of his students shot him dirty looks and began to practice the jutsu.

Unsurprisingly, Sasuke learned the jutsu first, while Sakura finished not too long after; due to her low chakra reserves, she had to take a break every few tries. Sakura squealed when she saw Sasuke's younger self, while Naruto scoffed and went back to practicing. Kakashi looked up from his book and said, "Done already?" The two genin nodded. "Sakura, Sasuke, go spar while Naruto finishes," Kakashi directed bluntly. Sakura looked elated while Sasuke merely grunted. They leapt away into another area of the training ground not too far away, and Naruto kept practicing.

Sakura and Sasuke sparred for a while, Sasuke soon growing bored and Sakura somehow managing to accomplish an inexplicable mixture of trying her hardest to not be beaten while not actually trying to defeat or injure Sasuke in any way. Naruto, meanwhile, was forming the handsigns over and over without pause, his face screwed up in annoyed concentration.

Sasuke threw a volley of blunted practice shuriken at Sakura, who replied by throwing a batch of blunted kunai. Most of them collided with the shuriken in midair, knocking them off course, but one sloppily thrown one went to the far right of where Sasuke stood. Coincidentally, behind Sasuke on Sakura's far right, Naruto had _just_ accomplished the jutsu and was boasting to Kakashi, who was ignoring him. Sakura's eyes widened as she saw where the kunai was headed, and Sasuke turned around, following her gaze. He was just in time to see the kunai hit the back of Naruto's head, blade side first, before it fell to the ground behind him. It had jerked his head forward, and his hair was now hanging around his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open. Naruto stood frozen for a second before he swayed slightly to the side, then swayed the other way while falling forward onto the ground.

All in all, it had to be the worst possible timing that could ever have influenced any human in all history. Such a poor, luckless bastard.

Kakashi – who had looked up from his book when he heard Naruto's rant suddenly cut off – instantly leapt to his feet and raced to Naruto's side, his Icha Icha Paradise lying forgotten on the ground. Sakura and Sasuke, who had just come out of their shock, followed suit and ran to Naruto. Sasuke knelt beside Kakashi, and Sakura crouched across from them; they were all looking down at Naruto in concern. Blood had started to color his hair and his eyes were open, though drooping and unseeing. He was lying down with his chest pressed to the ground and his arms lying limply beside him, the right side of his face against the ground.

"Naruto!" Kakashi said in an authoritative voice. "Naruto, can you hear me?" He waited for a second. "Naruto!"

Sakura, meanwhile was wailing, "Oh my god! Naruto! Is he okay, Kakashi-sensei? I didn't hurt him too badly, did I? Oh…" she trailed off, moaning. Sasuke remained silent, watching Naruto with intense onyx eyes. Kakashi put his hand on the back of Naruto's head, feeling the injury, and a small laceration met his fingertips; though the kunai had been blunted, it had been thrown hard and had been enough to cause some damage. He checked Naruto's pulse, and found it strong and steady. He put his hands under Naruto's body and lifted him up, holding him bridal style and taking care to support his head.

"I'm going to transport us all to the Hokage Tower so Tsunade-sama can take a look at him. Sasuke, could – "

"What? Why don't we take him to the hospital?" Sakura asked, wringing her hands nervously.

"Tsunade is the best medic, plus we'd have to wait at the hospital," he said reasonably, though he did not say all of his reasons… Sakura nodded, though a bit hesitantly. "Sasuke, Sakura, I need you to hold Naruto for me." They complied, Sasuke supporting Naruto's head and torso while Sakura had one arm under Naruto's legs while the other helped hold Naruto's torso. Kakashi formed a few handsigns and reached across Naruto's body to put one hand on both of their shoulders, putting the other on Naruto's forehead. They all disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

They appeared just outside the Hokage building. The guards pointed kunai at them, then lowered their weapons when they saw Kakashi. He took Naruto from his two students, holding him carefully and briskly walking in as the doors were opened for them. He continued his quick pace up through the Hokage Tower, Sakura and Sasuke following right behind him.

They soon arrived at a clerk's desk. A petite brown haired woman sat behind it, who looked up from a paper she was writing on. "What business do you have?" she asked politely.

"We wish to see the Hokage. My student requires her healing abilities." Kakashi said succinctly, his face blank.

"And you are?"

"Hatake Kakashi." She nodded and spent a moment rifling through some papers, then told them that they could go. "Thank you," Kakashi said, inclining his head before hurrying on.

When they reached the doors of the Hokage's office, Kakashi didn't bother talking to the two guards stationed by the doors. Instead he called, "Hokage-sama! Naruto's hurt."

Almost instantly they heard a loud "What?!" and something large falling over before the clacking sound of hard shoes on a hard floor. The double doors burst open to reveal Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage. She was a busty, pretty woman with piercing amber eyes and full red lips. She had long blond hair in two low ponytails down her back, two blond locks left free to frame her elegant face. She had a small, lavender diamond-shaped mark on her forehead and painted red fingernails. She wore a grey kimono-like shirt with a black cloth belt holding it closed. She also had on an open green jacket with the word 'gamble' written on the back in kanji. She wore short black pants and black, high-healed sandals.

"What happened to him?" Tsunade asked in a concerned voice with a matching expression on her face as she saw Naruto's young, limp form in the masked ninja's arms. "Come in, tell me what happened." She stood aside to let them in, closing the doors as they complied. Kakashi set the blond boy down on the floor as gently as he could. Tsunade crouched down beside Naruto. "Where was he hurt?" she asked.

"A wayward practice kunai hit him in the back of the head." Tsunade put her hands on Naruto's forehead, and the light from the healing green chakra cast odd shadows on Naruto's face. She knelt, her face screwed up in concentration, for about a minute, no one speaking or moving. Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who broke the silence.

"Will he be okay?" he asked in a calm voice. Tsunade frowned.

"He's sustained a contra-cous brain injury," she said at last.

"A what?" Kakashi asked. Tsunade's frown deepened.

"Contra-cous. It's not a good thing to have. We'll use Naruto as an example. You see, when Naruto got hit with the kunai, it forced his head forward, very fast. The brain wants to stay in the same place, so basically his skull came up and smacked into his own brain." Sakura gasped. Tsunade's voice was shaking slightly as she continued. "That's the 'cous' part. The contra is where the brain finally comes forward and smacks into the other side of the skull." Sakura broke down crying, and Sasuke's eyes were wide. Kakashi's expression was unreadable, a testament to his many years as an elite ninja. Though the mask probably helped.

"But Tsunade-sama, shouldn't the…" Kakashi trailed off, eyeing Sasuke and Sakura. "Shouldn't _that thing_ be helping him heal?" he asked.

"What thing?" Sasuke asked. The two adults ignored him.

"It is, but it's being slow. Apparently _it_ isn't too experienced with the human brain," Tsunade said sourly. Then she bellowed, "SHIZUNE!!" Shizune burst through the doors not ten seconds later.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" she said, panting slightly. Tsunade didn't even look up from her healing.

"Get a room in the hospital ready for Naruto," she said grimly. Shizune looked alarmed.

"Naruto?!" She looked down at the small, blond child Tsunade was healing. "Is that Naruto?" Tsunade nodded and reminded her she had a job to do. Shizune took off at a run.

Finally, Tsunade removed her hands from Naruto's head. She looked down at Naruto's young face and sighed. She then picked him up and walked over to her chair and sat in it, holding Naruto in her lap with her arms gently wrapped around his thin form. "Now, can you tell me what happened to Naruto?" she said, her eyes running over the conscious members of Team Seven.

"It's my fault, Hokage-sama!" Sakura burst out. "It was my kunai that hit him!" Tsunade interrupted, preventing Sakura from going into an all-out rant.

"Hold on. Kakashi, could you tell me – from the beginning – what happened?"

"I was teaching my team a new jutsu – the one Naruto is currently in now." He motioned to the blond child in her arms. Tsunade nodded for him to continue. "Sakura and Sasuke finished the jutsu before Naruto, so I sent them to spar. As luck would have it, Naruto had just figured out the jutsu when a badly aimed kunai hit him in the back of the head. After that I transported him here to you," he said, finishing his abbreviated version of events.

"Well, all we can do now is wait until he wakes up, I guess…" Tsunade said. At that moment, Shizune opened the large double doors once more to tell them Naruto's room was ready. Tsunade stood up slowly, holding Naruto in her arms like he was a young child – which, in fact, he now was. She stopped at the door and turned to the silent Team Seven. "You can come visit him in the hospital tomorrow," she said before turning and walking out of sight down the hall.

Mid-morning the next day, Team Seven, Tsunade, Shizune, Team Eight, Team Ten, Team Gai, and Iruka (Tsunade had had the latter four notified) were all gathered at Naruto's bedside. They had been called into the room by the nurse who was attending Naruto; he was waking up.

End of Chapter One


	2. You Remember What!

Disclaimer: I own...nothing! Mwa ha ha ha! Naruto is happily in the clutches of Masashi Kishimoto. Though he is often kidnapped and forced to do scary things by rabid fans, he always finds his way back home. I hope. Run Naruto, run...!

Chapter Two: You Remember _What?!_

"Naruto?"

…Who was that?

"Naruto." His eyelids flickered, and he could barely make out a vaguely humanoid shape. Who could that be? Was it Sarutobi? No one else would speak to him in such a kind voice, except maybe…

"Naruto. It's time to wake up now." There. Someone was telling him to do something. He always had to do what people told him. He had to be a good boy and do what he was told, or he'd get hurt more. Again. He opened his eyes.

Tsunade, Shizune, Iruka, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Tenten, Neji, Rock Lee, Gai, Kurenai, Asuma, Kakashi, Sasuke, and Sakura stood by Naruto's bedside anxiously (or stoically, mildly concerned, or whatever was their nature) while the small child's eyelids flickered, as if he couldn't decide between sleeping and waking. "Naruto. It's time to wake up now," Tsunade said softly, gently brushing Naruto's blond hair away from his eyes. Naruto's eyes opened, and she smiled, relieved. "How are you, Naruto?"

For a moment he just looked at her, not comprehending. Then a startling look appeared on the transformed ninja's face; it was a mix of panic, fear, confusion, calculation, and the sort of look one gets when they hear "Heads up!" and turn around just in time to see something flying directly into their face.

Naruto pulled away from her, pressing himself against the wall next to one side of his bed. "U—um…" he said hesitantly. "Who are you?"

Everyone froze. "Naruto…" Shizune began.

"I was afraid this would happen," Tsunade said sadly. Everyone turned to her. At the same time, Naruto noticed something. Almost all of the people there were wearing hitai-ate.

"N—ninja…" Naruto said quietly, almost fearfully.

"Naruto…" Sakura said as she stepped towards him. She stopped when he flinched away from her, holding his arms over his head as if afraid of being hit.

"He's lost his memory," Tsunade stated sullenly. Total silence. Nobody made a move.

The silence was finally broken by the rustling of sheets as Naruto tried to press himself closer to the wall, curling into himself. "But…Hokage-sama…" Kakashi began. "How could he have lost his memory?"

"That jutsu you taught him completely transforms a person's body into their younger selves," Tsunade said to begin her explanation. "Only the creator of that jutsu knows how the ninja using the jutsu maintains the mind of their older selves, seeing as the brain is reverted, too. There have been one or two reported incidents where ninja temporarily forgot their former selves."

"What's this jutsu called, Hokage-sama?" Sakura asked curiously. 'Hokage?!' Naruto thought in alarm.

"Even though the creator of this jutsu was such a genius, he couldn't be bothered to name his own bloody jutsu," she said sourly. "By the way, who gave you authorization to teach your team such a dangerous technique, Kakashi?" she finished, glaring at the infamous Copy Ninja. Said ninja had merely become very interested in the lighting fixtures.

"Anyway," she continued, "Naruto's contra-cous injury—"

"Excuse me?" two people said at once. Tsunade looked at them both. Shikamaru looked nonchalant, while Naruto shrank into himself again. Tsunade waited for one of them to speak. When Naruto merely remained silent while doubling his efforts of trying to merge with the wall, Shikamaru sighed and spoke. "What's a contra-cous injury?" he drawled. "It's not gonna do us much good by way of explanation if we don't know what it is."

"It's basically when your brain takes a little carnival ride inside your head and keeps smacking into your skull," Kakashi said helpfully just as Tsunade opened her mouth. "Think bumper cars, with one of the cars made out of jelly. Or rather, Jell-O." Most of the people in the room looked mildly ill.

"Yes, well," Tsunade started again impatiently. "Naruto's injury may have imbalanced whatever allows a ninja to maintain their older consciousness. I'm almost 100 certain it's not permanent," Tsunade assured the gathered ninja, "But it may take a while for Naruto to regain his memory, and his older form. In that time, he'll be extremely vulnerable."

While the ninja talked among themselves, Naruto was doing more than just looking pathetic and scooting up against the wall. He was vaguely listening to the conversation going on, and came to a few conclusions. One, these ninja weren't intending to cause him immediate harm, and appeared to have no intention to do so in the future. They weren't acting like normal villagers or ninja. Two, they were talking about him. Apparently, if he was right, he had been in some sort of accident and lost his memory. But how could that be? From what he could tell, he was still the same age, and he couldn't have come to know so many people in such a short time that his body would show no change at all. So what had happened to him? He needed to find out. No more being afraid.

"Would you all please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" he asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice as he calmly uncurled his body and stretched out his arms in front of him. He was faking it—in truth he was incredibly nervous and frightened—but he'd learned a long time ago fear only encouraged the cruel. The people all stopped talking and turned to him immediately, making a small part of him want to curl up again. He ruthlessly squashed the urge and continued, "I think I have the right to know what's happened to me. From what you've been saying, it seems I've lost my memory. Care to bring me up to speed?"

All the people in the room gawked at the now scowling six-year-old, who had changed from a frightened child to a cold, calculating one in an instant. Kakashi wanted to ask Tsunade if this was really Naruto or if someone had come in during the night and switched him with another blond, blue-eyed, six-year-old boy with whisker-like marks on his cheeks. Naruto would never speak like that—not even as the twelve-year-old he had been yesterday morning, much less at half that age. All Kakashi was able to manage, however, was a weak "Hokage-sama? What's going on?"

Tsunade, though, was pretty stupefied as well. The room was filled with a stuffy, uncomfortable and overwhelming quiet, until the silence was broken by none other than Jiraiya.

The door was suddenly slammed open to reveal the panting Toad Sage, his olive-colored clothes and red vest askew. The scroll hung on his back by a thin, strange sort of sling looked like it was about to tumble onto the floor, like the two kunai that fell out of his sleeve when he let his hand drop from the door frame. His long white hair was messier than usual, some of it coming loose from his ponytail in a way the assembled ninja were fairly sure was not intentional. "How is he? Is Naruto all right?" he asked in a single breath. Then the small child sitting on the bed caught his eye. "Naruto!" he said, closing the distance between him and the bed in a few short strides even as the door slowly swung shut in his wake. Everyone watched curiously as he patted Naruto's head, then his arms and torso, as if he was checking his apprentice was still at least in one piece. But then he _picked Naruto up_. Everyone gaped at him, including Naruto, before the Toad Sage enveloped the six-year-old into a crushing hug.

"What happened to you, brat?! You're even smaller than usual! When Tsunade sent me a message saying you had a con—…um…thingy, I almost had a heart attack! She only uses techno-babble on people when she doesn't want them to know how bad an injury really is. I thought you were gonna die!" Jiraiya released Naruto from the hug, holding him at arms length. "Don't you dare worry me like that again, you little brat."

Jiraiya's monologue left everyone even more speechless than before. Jiraiya smartly set Naruto back down on the bed, and nodded his head towards Tsunade. "If you would, please tell me what happened to my apprentice?"

Tsunade glared fiercely at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Naruto's lost his memory, he doesn't even know who you are!" Now it was Jiraiya's turn to be put very off-kilter.

"Um…"

"And he's sustained a contra-cous head injury, which means—"

"His brain did a little 'durability test'. His skull snuck up on his brain and whacked it, then the other side of his skull got a cheap shot in on the rebound," Kakashi supplied, merrily interpreting Tsunade's techno-babble before she could even say it. Naruto, who hadn't quite been listening to Kakashi's first interpretation, gained a curious look and started poking his head in random places. Iruka gently grabbed Naruto's wrist when the boy started tapping the bridge of his nose.

"Ew. Sounds nasty," Jiraiya said, not looking at all unsettled. Then he turned to the gathered crown of ninja in general. "Now who can tell me what merry little trouble this brat got into to get himself a kontra-ku thingy?"

"Stray practice kunai hit him in the back of the head," Kakashi explained before Sakura could. She looked ready to cry, the guilt of it all coming back to her, made worse by Jiraiya's quick progression through what Kakashi _creatively_ dubbed as "What Happens When A Friend (/Teammate/Student/Teacher/Family) Gets Excessive Damage To Their Psyche or Person." The Toad Sage had briskly (and expressively) gone through the "Thank Goodness You're Alright" stage, breezed right on through "Don't You Ever Put Yourself in Danger like That Again or I'll Kill You Myself", and was now about a fourth of the way through "Tell Me What the Hell Happened or Heads Will Roll." If he kept going at this rate, he would be at "Now That Everything's Right and Good on My End of the World, I'm Off" in a matter of minutes.

"And why's he a kid?" Jiraiya probed.

"I was teaching him a new jutsu. You know, the one created by a _certain student_ of a _certain someone_ that never got a name?" Kakashi replied, not missing a beat.

"Um…yes, well, it was _his _jutsu…" Jiraiya, however, was completely thrown off. "The _certain someone_ wasn't really at all involved…um." Jiraiya gave up.

"All of you shut up," Tsunade said grumpily, having been interrupted one too many times during a single conversion. "Naruto still has no idea what's going on."

"Actually, I think I do," Naruto said while rubbing the back of his head, trying to determine where he'd been hit. "I got hit in the back of the head with a kunai and lost part of my memory. Apparently a lot of it, though, because you people are talking like I was a lot older before." He paused. "I have a few clarifying questions. Why _am_ I a kid, and why does my memory loss extend back to exactly this age? And how old was I before? Who are all you people?"

Amazingly, it was Sasuke who stepped up. "You're a kid because our sensei was teaching us a jutsu that transforms you into a kid. Your memory loss apparently extends to this age because this age is how old your _brain_ is right now. You were twelve before. And we're…" Here he faltered. "Well, the pink-haired girl, Sakura, and I are your teammates. My name's Uchiha Sasuke."

Kakashi stepped up as well. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, your jonin sensei."

Iruka was the next to catch on. "I'm Umino Iruka, your former academy teacher and friend."

Jiraiya never missed an opportunity to introduce himself. "I am Jiraiya, the Toad Sage! I can woo any woman and even silence a crying child! One of the Sanin and brilliant author extraordinaire, I am also your super-talented teacher!

"I'm Tsunade, Godaime Hokage and also one of the Sanin. I'm kind of your surrogate big sister!" Tsunade said with a grin.

"I am Rock Lee, a genius of hard work, and your friend and comrade!" Rock Lee said loudly, tears streaming down his face even as he did the 'good-guy' pose.

"And I am Maito Gai, jonin sensei to Team Gai and a fellow Leaf ninja concerned for the well-being of one of Konoha's youthful, hard-working ninja!!" Gai said even more loudly, mimicking Lee's 'good-guy' pose.

"Hyuuga Neji. Member of Team Gai, friend, and fellow ninja."

"Hey, I'm Tenten! I'm also part of Team Gai, and I'm a fellow ninja."

"I-I'm Hyu-Hyuuga Hinata. I'm a friend and ninja."

"Inuzuka Kiba! I'm a ninja too, but way better than you! Sorry, squi—" Ino whacked him.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino, the prettiest kunoichi of the Rookie Nine!"

"Maaaa…Nara Shikamaru…chunin…friend and commanding officer," the shadow-user said with a yawn.

"Akimichi Chouji. Friend and fellow ninja. We've been eating buddies since the academy," Chouji said enthusiastically while eating a chip. Several people wondered how he had managed to smuggle chips into a hospital room.

"I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, jonin sensei to genin Team Eight."

"Sarutobi Asuma. Jonin sensei to Team Ten."

"I'm Shizune, Tsunade's assistant and medic-ninja-in-training. I'm your friend, too."

Naruto sat on his bed, looking pretty overwhelmed, but he still tried to commit their names and faces to memory. He managed to ask, "And who's that guy?" He pointed.

"Oh, that's—"

"Aburame Shino." Naruto waited for him to say more, but was disappointed.

"Yeah," Kiba said, a little unsettled that Shino had spoken. "Don't worry, he just doesn't talk much."

Naruto still looked dazed, but the gathered ninja waited patiently for him to collect himself. "Okay…question.

"That guy…um…Kakashi…said he was my jonin sensei. But this Sanin person says he's my sensei, too.

"Could someone please explain?" Naruto said, looking rather helpless and lost.

"He is your jonin sensei, kid, but you're _my_ apprentice!" Jiraiya exclaimed before anyone else could. "I've taught you water-walking and the Rasengan, the Yondaime's prized jutsu!"

"What?! Hey—!" Kiba cut in.

"I also taught you how to summon. You can summon toads, including the boss summon Gamabunta! It took you a while to learn, though…" When Naruto looked at him curiously, he elaborated, "I had to toss you off a cliff for you to finally get it right."

Tsunade looked absolutely livid. "**You did what?**" she said furiously, in a way that made many of the shinobi in the room want to run for their poor, endangered, woefully young lives. What was most frightening about the way she said it, though, was that she didn't even raise her voice. What she lacked in volume she _more_ than made up for with the ice in her voice and the sheer _mass_ of killing intent rolling off her in waves. "**A **_**cliff?**_"

"Um, well, I guess it wasn't so much _off a cliff_ as it was _into a ravine…_" Jiraiya said in a desperate (and very misguided) attempt to save himself. Tsunade growled. "Or rather, I guess it was more of a canyon…" Tsunade snarled at him. "Okay, truthfully, it was pretty much an abyss…"

"_**JIRAYA!!**_" the Godaime shrieked. She grabbed the front of his disheveled olive-green clothes and one of his ankles. Then she lifted him up a little above her right shoulder as the Toad Sage unsuccessfully pleaded for her to let him go. Faster than most of the shinobi in the room could follow, Tsunade gave Jiraiya a mighty heave out the window.

Jiraiya's yell become more and more distant as Tsunade continued to stand in the same position as when she threw Jiraiya; everyone else merely stood still with whatever expression they had been wearing forcefully frozen on their face.

Naruto, for one, looked a little scared and very confused. Shizune's look of exasperation had become painfully fixed. Kakashi looked mildly amused. Iruka was wearing an expression of shocked horror. Gai looked surprised and very wary. Kurenai looked annoyed, and Asuma was wearing a similar but milder expression. Sasuke looked apathetic, with a little 'WTF?' mixed in. Sakura looked slightly appalled. Hinata was both concerned and shocked. Kiba looked rather amused. Shino's expression was hidden behind his sunglasses and overlarge coat. Shikamaru was bored. Ino was smirking. Chouji had paused in the middle of bringing a chip up to his mouth. Neji had a look of disapproval that Tenten shared but with some added confusion. Lee looked rather shocked.

After a time a rather distant but unpleasant sounding smack was heard, and Jiraiya's already faint voice was suddenly cut off. No one moved a muscle for several seconds. Then Naruto hopped off the bed, bounded over to the wall, and scrambled up to look out the window before anyone could wake up enough to stop him. He looked out, trying to find the toad sage. He spotted him imbedded face-first in the wall of a building a good ways away and several floors higher than Naruto's position (at least from what he could tell). Jiraiya was still, remaining planted against the wall for a moment before peeling off and falling to the ground below.

"Hey Tsunade," Naruto said, still looking down at Jiraiya.

"Yeah?"

"What floor is this?" the blond child asked curiously.

"The fourth."

"Wah!" Naruto said suddenly, scrambling back inside the room as quickly as he could. "Are you serious! Four is the most unlucky number there is!" Everyone looked at him strangely.

"While that's not really a superstition I've heard before, it's still just that; a superstition. There's no such thing as 'bad luck'," Sasuke said calmly.

"There so is!" Naruto countered. "On my fourth birthday I fell off a roof!"

"Naruto, that's just one incident…" Iruka tried to reason. 'Although how you survived falling off a roof when you were only four I'll never know…'

"Nuh-uh!" Naruto contradicted. "One time I bought four packets of ramen and I burnt them all when I tried to cook them!"

"Naruto…" Kakashi began exasperatedly.

"And one time I was staying in a hotel room for a couple nights, and the room number was 44! The toilet overflowed!" No one had much of a response for that. "And one time at the orphanage we were playing a game where you had to throw four balls at a bulls eye. My first throw knocked over a vase and broke it, my second throw broke a window, my third throw hit one of the older kid's art projects, and my fourth throw hit the head of the orphanage!"

Inside the room there was silence. A voice could faintly be heard from somewhere outside saying, "What, seriously! That is so awesome! But you have no manner of luck at all, squirt."

"And the Fourth Hokage's career didn't last too long; ended rather violently from what I hear," Naruto continued. At that moment Jiraiya leapt back inside through the broken window, brushing himself off indignantly and straightening his mussed clothes and hair. Naruto leapt back onto the bed, afraid that all these big adults might accidentally squish him.

"That was a bit below the belt, kid," Jiraiya said while straightening his shirt.

"Do you want to see what's _really_ below the belt?" Tsunade said as she glowered at him warningly.

"Not really. Hey brat, I've got an idea!" Jiraiya said as he fixed his hair. "How about I re-teach you some of your old techniques? What do you say, kid?" Naruto's eyes brightened.

"You'd really teach me?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Darn right I would! I'm your teacher."

"Hold it!!" several people said at once.

"I won't allow you to re-teach him that 'Orioke-no-Jutsu' of his. I refuse to let you corrupt him!" Tsunade protested.

"He's my student too!" Kakashi complained. "He should be able to get re-acquainted with his team."

"I'm the only one powerful enough to protect him! Besides Tsunade, anyway, and she's too busy being Hokage. He should be in my care!" Jiraiya retorted.

"Protect me from what?" Naruto asked warily. All three adults froze.

"Um…" Jiraiya floundered.

"Well, you see…" Kakashi said evasively.

"The thing is…" Tsunade tried. All three adults looked at each other.

"We're pretty much screwed, aren't we?" Kakashi asked the two Sanin.

"Pretty much," Tsunade sighed.

"Think we should tell all of them?" Jiraiya asked the other two, but mainly Tsunade.

"Why not? The kids are all Naruto's friends, and the adults are all loyal ninja of Konoha," Tsunade replied.

"But it is an S-Class secret…" Kakashi trailed off as the other two glared at him.

"Great job, Kakashi. Now we _have_ to tell them all."

"We were going to anyway," Kakashi grumbled.

"I'll do the honors," Jiraiya said. He turned to the gathered ninja, but spoke to Naruto in particular. "Okay. Point A, an organization of S-Class criminals is trying to kidnap Naruto. Point B, they're called the Akatsuki. The end." Tsunade slapped her forehead and dragged her hand down her face. The room broke out in about seven or eight conversations at once.

"Everyone be quiet," Tsunade snapped. "Jiraiya, you're fired from explanation duty. _I'll_ tell them. Starting with the background information that will provide the _why_."

"B-but Tsunade…!" Jiraiya spluttered. "That's illegal! Plus, it's Naruto's secret."

"Shut up. I'm Hokage, and I'll do as I see fit. And it's about time Naruto's friends knew the truth, anyway."

"What truth?" Sasuke asked with narrowed eyes. The three adults looked at each other again, and appeared to have a silent conversation that involved much arm waving, some very odd expressions, and Tsunade flipping off Jiraiya twice.

After one very expressive arm wave, Jiraiya pointed at Naruto and glared pointedly at Tsunade. She looked at Naruto, frowning in thought, then nodded curtly to Jiraiya. The Toad Sage huffed and marched over to Naruto's bedside.

"Lift up your shirt, kid," Jiraiya drawled as he gathered chakra to his fingers. Naruto suddenly grew very, very pale.

"What?" he said very quietly, almost a whisper. His eyes were wide. "N-no!" he said, backing into the wall. "You're just like those weird men, aren't you? The ones from my fifth birthday…" He trailed off, terror in his eyes.

Everyone in the room felt a sudden, awful sense of dread and foreboding wash over them. "What men, kid? What did they do to you…?" Jiraiya asked sternly.

"Get away from me!" Naruto cried, leaping off the bed and running for the door. He was intercepted by Tsunade, who appeared directly in his path and kneeled so she was at his level. Before he could stop or even change direction, she enveloped him into a tight hug. Naruto squawked in protest, writhing in her arms. He pushed at her with his small hands, trying desperately to get away.

"It's alright," she tried to assure him. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said soothingly. "Everything is alright, we're your friends, we won't hurt you…" She continued to murmur reassurances in his ear as he fought against her iron grip. Soon he was quivering in her arms, unmoving. He hesitantly reached up and hugged her back, small fistfuls of her grey shirt clenched in his hands. He pressed himself against her, melting in her warm embrace. He started to cry.

"You're the first person…" Naruto sobbed, "That's ever hugged me…" Only Tsunade's ironclad will prevented her from stiffening at his words. She stood up, bringing the sobbing child up with her, and walked over to the bed. She sat down on it, rocking slowly as her own eyes started to glisten. Naruto continued to sob into her chest, darkening her shirt with his tears.

Jiraiya came and sat down beside her, his weight making the bed groan and creak in protest. "I'm not going to hurt you, kid." The Toad Sage rubbed Naruto's back with one of his big, scarred hands. "But can you tell us what happened to you? On your fifth birthday?" he asked quietly. Tsunade glared at him as a single tear trickled out of the corner of her eye.

"Jiraiya, you insensitive clod," she said, her voice strong despite her raging emotions. "Can't you see he's _distraught?_"

"I can see that," Jiraiya said grimly. "But even so, we need to know what happened. That's the best way to help him. He needs to get this off his chest." Jiraiya continued rubbing Naruto's back comfortingly. "What happened, Naruto?" Naruto only buried his face in Tsunade's shoulder. "Come on, kid." It was the word 'kid' that did it. That affectionate way of addressing him…like a friend. Like a son, or maybe a nephew. Naruto lifted head from Tsunade's shoulder, and rested his left cheek against her neck. His words were quiet, almost too quiet to hear.

"I had just gone out to go eat ramen at Ichiraku's…" Despite the seriousness of the conversation, there were a few ninja who couldn't help smiling at these words. Naruto was a total ramen-addict even when he was six. "Ichiraku-san let me eat for free, 'cause it was my birthday…but while I was walking back to my apartment…" Here Naruto's breath caught in his throat. Jiraiya gave his shoulder a gentle, comforting squeeze. "These men…there was four of them."

'There's that four thing again…' Tsunade thought with a growing sense of unease. "I was taking a short cut…down an alley, and something knocked me to the ground. I felt something on my back, and I couldn't get up. I heard the men talking. I couldn't hear all of what they were saying, but I caught a few words." Naruto's eyes started glistening with fresh tears. "'Demon…monster…a lesson he'll never forget…'" Naruto quoted. "'You'll get what you deserve.'"

The eyes of the adult shinobi in the room became cold and stony, many filled with barely concealed rage and sorrow. The genin in the room looked shocked and horrified, some of them—Sasuke, Neji, Shikamaru, and Kiba—looked coldly furious.

"They…they took off my shirt. Then…I felt pain all over my body. They were hitting me, and cutting, and burning…" Naruto forced the words out, his eyes clouded and wide with the horror of remembering. "I have the scars to prove it."

"Could…could you show us, Naruto?" Tsunade said gently, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder and carefully pulling him away from her body.

Naruto nodded. "It's not like you couldn't force me to show you anyway," he said quietly. With trembling hands, he fumbled with his overlarge white shirt that no one had bothered to change him out of the day before. If they had, they would have seen the mass of scar tissue spread all over his torso. There were long thin scars, most likely caused by some sort of blade; round ones, like kunai had been stabbed into his skin; old burn scars, some the size of an adult's fingerprint while others were as large as Naruto's palm; there were patches of skin that dipped a little like chunks had been ripped away. 'Or dissolved away,' some of the more experienced shinobi thought, recognizing the possibility of some sort of strong acid. All of the shinobi were horrified, but others hid it better than others.

Sasuke looked livid, his fists clenched hard enough to make his knuckles white. His Sharingan blazed and his hair lifted a little with the small but intense waves of chakra he was giving off. Sakura looked like she was either in shock or about to puke. Tsunade had managed to school her face into an emotionless mask, but hints of apocalyptic fury blazed in her amber eyes. Jiraiya's face looked solemn, sad, and disappointed; but also resigned and accepting. Kakashi's mask and headband concealed most of his expression, but cold fury flickered almost imperceptibly in his eye. Iruka looked completely and utterly distraught; as did Hinata, Ino, Tenten, Chouji, and Kiba. Shino, though his expression was even better concealed than Kakashi's due to his hidden eyes, somehow managed to fill the air around him with a distinct aura of _dismay_. Lee looked shocked and tears were leaking from his eyes. Neji's whole body was tense, and his face was a mask of poorly concealed rage. Shikamaru looked cold and calculating, and his eyes were narrowed into thin slits. Kurenai looked upset, Asuma resigned but rather sad, and Shizune was near tears.

"I heard them say to each other…that they wouldn't do anything really bad to my arms. They said they didn't want to leave anything that wouldn't be covered up by clothes." Naruto sat there, his bare torso exposed to all the ninja in the room, a collection of horrendous scars no child his age (either twelve or six) should have decorating his tan skin, his white shirt in his lap, unwilling to meet the eyes of any of these strange people. "T-they told me…that they would do worse to me if I ever told." And suddenly, the gathered shinobi realized how much raw courage and trust it must have taken for the blond child to tell them this. Even the most naïve of the children understood that, to Naruto, if these strangers betrayed him and told those men, he would get hurt even more. And they knew Naruto had built up that punishment in his mind, the horrible penalty for telling made dozens of times worse by Naruto's young imagination.

'I don't understand…" Jiraiya thought. 'I saw him without his shirt when I fixed the seal after Orochimaru's meddling. Why did he have no scars then?' No genjutsu cast by a genin as unskilled as Naruto would have been able to fool him, one of the Sanin. Then he realized. 'In this body, it's been less than two years since it happened. The Kyuubi must have healed the scars by the time he was twelve, but…if they're still this bad after two years even with Kyuubi's help…' He felt his stomach drop. 'How vicious was this attack?!'

Naruto's bare shoulders shook with sobs. "Y-you won't tell them, will you?" He said in a quiet, broken voice. Tears of shame and self-pity streamed down his cheeks to drip onto the clean white bed sheets.

Iruka staggered over and cupped Naruto's cheeks, gently turning Naruto's face up so he could meet the child's eyes. Iruka's own eyes glistened with tears and were filled with empathy and regret. He had pushed up his headband a little to expose his forehead, which he rested against Naruto's. He closed his long-lashed eyes and said softly, "Don't worry Naruto. We won't tell. They won't hurt you again."

Tsunade growled deep in her throat. 'You can bet your life they won't.' "Shizune," she said out loud.

"Yes?" the black-haired woman answered.

"Go to my office and search all the files you can get your hands on. See if you can find this incident. I want to know these men's names, their addresses, and what the _hell_ their punishment was." Shizune nodded solemnly, recognizing the odd tone in her teacher's voice. It was the tone that she used when she was at her most dangerous, filled to the brim with cold, concentrated rage. Shizune couldn't help but feel the smallest amount of pity for the four men who had dared to accost Uzumaki Naruto.


	3. Misplaced Blame

Disclaimer: It's called fanfiction for a reason, people. You know what I'm talking about. Fan—written by fans. Fiction—not actually real. WOAH. Novel concept, ne?

Misplaced Blame

A thick silence permeated the room after Shizune left. The gathered shinobi slowly formed small groups around the room and several quiet conversations picked up. Iruka had taken Tsunade's place on Naruto's bed when she and Jiraiya got up to go talk quietly by the wall. Naruto sat quietly in the chunin's lap, his small hands grasping the man's vest with surprising strength. Iruka was murmuring soft assurances to him, while Naruto remained mostly unresponsive while staring into space with sad looking cerulean eyes. Sasuke and Neji had gone off and filled a corner of the room with a concentrated aura of pure, noble-prided doom. Kiba was standing a little off to the side of them, and he leaned against the wall while putting off his own (much less fearsome) aura of doom. The jounin had claimed their own corner of the small hospital room and were talking in low, quiet voices. Kakashi stood a little apart from them, as if he was torn between staying and marveling at the fact that Gai _could_, in fact, be quiet—or going over and joining the two sanin by the adjacent wall. Shikamaru had claimed a spot right next to the solitary window in the room, and he was looking over his shoulder at the grey sky with a cold, troubled look on his face. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and Tenten were idling near the remaining wall; they were looking torn between plotting how they would catch and castrate those four men or going and comforting Naruto. Chouji, Shino, and Lee were standing in the middle of the room generating a general air of distress.

By the time Shizune came back, Kakashi had decided to join the two sanin and was participating in their discussion. Hinata had broken off from the other girls and had gone to comfort Naruto while Tenten, Ino, and Sakura plotted things that made the few males who could hear shiver almost undetectably. Naruto had gone from staring into to space to doing his best to cling to Hinata and Iruka at the same time. Kiba had increased the space between himself and the Noble Corner of Fury, which had become even more fearsome than before; killing intent filled the air all around them, creating an almost tangible wall of anger. Shizune might have been mildly amused by this whole scene, if she weren't so shaken by what she had found.

Everyone looked over at the door when they heard it slam open. Shizune stood in the doorway, panting slightly and covered in dust. Her short black hair was in disarray and her clothes were wrinkled. A small stack of thick folders was clutched tightly in her hand, and a thin binder was tucked under her arm.

"Tsu-Tsunade…" Shizune stuttered, her eyes wide and her face white. Tsunade stepped away from Jiraiya and Kakashi, approaching Shizune with quick, confident steps. She took the files from Shizune's trembling fingers and sent her apprentice a worried glance.

"What is it, Shizune? Did you get all the information I asked for? And why are there—" Tsunade quickly counted, "—six folders here? What's that binder for?"

Shizune took in a deep breath and said, "I found folders on three of the four men, and an incident report of that night as well as Naruto's medical report from the incident, but Tsunade…there's some other information I found when I was getting what you asked for. I think that you should read some of those folders outside first before you share them with…" Shizune glanced around the room, "…unclassified personnel." Tsunade raised one golden eyebrow at her apprentice before following her out into the hall, Jiraiya trailing behind her.

Those left behind in Naruto's hospital room were left fairly dumbfounded, and remained in relative silence for many minutes. They soon started to shift uneasily and look around at each other uncomfortably, but fortunately (or unfortunately) they were all saved from the awkward silence by the _sweet_ voice of their beautiful, _young_ hokage.

"**WHAT???!!**" Tsunade bellowed. The force of her voice seemed to shake the very foundations of the hospital itself, and those with more sensitive hearing (i.e. most of the ninja) clapped their hands over their ears in pain. "**WHAT IN THE HELL **_**IS **_**THIS??!!!**"

After Tsunade's initial deafening outburst, some loud voices could be heard from the hallway but none of them were loud enough for the shinobi to hear the words clearly. After a minute the voices died down to serious murmurs, and several minutes later Tsunade stomped back into the room with Jiraiya and Shizune trailing behind her, white-faced and weary-looking.

"There are several pieces of information I've just been made aware of that I feel should be brought to light. Some apply more to certain people than others. But know that what I'm about to tell you is the truth to the best of my knowledge. The information I've obtained from these files is classified, and available only to the hokage and the select few people who the hokage allows temporary access. Shizune was given a temporary pass seal to obtain the files I requested, and the seal disintegrated once it was used. This information is totally unobtainable by any enemies or traitors. It is impossible that any of this information was tampered with," Tsunade said in a flat, serious tone. Her eyes were narrow and blazing, and it was clear to everyone that she was barely keeping herself controlled.

"I won't read these files to you directly, as that would take too long and the wording is a bit too complex for some of you to understand." With that, Tsunade took a deep breath, let it out, and began.

"Six years ago Naruto was viciously attacked by four men on the tenth of October. He received multiple lacerations, bruises, broken bones and chemical burns. He almost died, but was rescued by an ANBU on patrol. The ANBU's codename was Kitsune." Kakashi's eyes widened at this.

"The _Fox_? But he's…wait, you mean…Tsunade-sama, how is that possible?" Kakashi asked in horror.

"He was once loyal to this village, you know," Jiraiya said in lieu of a proper answer, but it seemed enough to temporarily calm the shocked jounin.

"Who is this Fox you're talking about, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked with a curious frown. The Godaime merely sighed.

"He's a former ANBU," Tsunade replied. Seeing Sakura about to say something else, she added, "We'll reveal his identity to you all after I've finished telling you what happened. Otherwise I'd never get to finish." Tsunade's answer made most of the ninja more nervous rather than calming them, but a few of them motioned for her to continue. Naruto, meanwhile, had a worried frown on his face.

"Kitsune quickly killed three of the men, but the fourth—who clearly had training, at least elite jounin to ANBU level—had fled before Kitsune arrived. Kitsune quickly brought Naruto to the hospital where he was treated for his wounds. The fourth man remains unidentified, but we suspect he is no longer in the village." Silence followed Tsunade's words.

Then, surprisingly, it was Shikamaru who asked, "So who was this Kitsune guy?" Tsunade sighed, and glanced at Sasuke.

"ANBU member Kitsune was actually…Uchiha Itachi."

The resulting reaction was instantaneous. "_That can't be right,_" Sasuke said furiously. "Something must have been changed."

"I already told you that's impossible. These reports are—"

"Then the original information must have been wrong! There's no way that man would ever—"

"Sasuke-san," a small voice interrupted. "Itachi-san was the one who rescued me." All heads turned to look at Naruto. "He made me promise not to tell anyone who he was, but you guys already know." Naruto looked at Sasuke, a cutely confused look on his face. "Why do you think it wasn't Itachi-san?" Sasuke expression hardened. He didn't respond.

"Naruto," Tsunade said quietly. "It's because he thinks that Itachi is a bad person. It is widely believed that Uchiha Itachi was the one who committed the genocide of almost the entire Uchiha clan."

"'Believed'?" Sasuke said bitterly. He looked at Tsunade angrily, the tomoe in his Sharingan eyes spinning wildly. "There's no question about it! He killed my family!"

A loud crack filled the room when Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, gave Uchiha Sasuke a mighty slap across the face. Everyone froze in shock. Sasuke merely stood there, stunned, his face turned to the side from the blow. "Tell me, why do you think he killed your family?"

"Because I saw it!" Sasuke spat, turning his head to glare at her. The shinobi in the room watched the exchange in varying degrees and mixtures of surprise, horror, and pity. Naruto looked like he had just been told his older brother was a murderer—which, in a way, he had.

"So you saw it all with your own eyes? You witnessed every blow and death and did nothing to stop it?" Tsunade said—it sounded almost like a challenge. Like she was _goading _him on; however, there was no mirth in her eyes. Only sadness, pity, and bitterness.

"Of course not! He made me watch it all with his damn Mangekyou Sharingan!" he revealed, not caring who heard. "I was forced to watch my family die over and over again for days!"

"How are you sure what Itachi showed you is real?" Sasuke froze. "Did the Itachi you knew really seem the type to do something like that? When you've interacted with him since, did he truly seem like such a different person from who you knew? Do you have any idea at all _why_ Itachi would do such a thing?" Sasuke's eyes seemed to grow wider with every word, until Tsunade's last sentence made them narrow into slits.

"He told me himself. He said it was 'to test his capacity'." Sasuke seemed to be completely disregarding the fact that he was revealing one of his deepest secrets to a room full of comrades-that-weren't-quite-friends and near-strangers. It was as if he felt the need to justify himself, to prove that his quest for vengeance was not an empty effort.

"Do you really think Itachi would have killed your entire clan for that? Even the civilians who couldn't handle a _kitchen knife_ to save their lives? Would he kill the month-old infants who couldn't even talk, and the children incapable of using chakra? Do you think someone like Itachi would sink so low?" Sasuke's eyes were wide again. "Why would he limit himself to just the Uchiha clan? Why not go after the Hyuuga, or the ANBU? The Hokage himself? And as good as Itachi is, do you think he was really skilled enough to take down the entire Uchiha clan completely unscathed? The Uchiha were proud of their skills, and they were Konoha's police force; our greatest weapon. Could one person, even a genius of their blood, destroy them all in one fell swoop?" Tsunade leaned forward to look right into his eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi did not murder your family." It was a statement said with the utmost conviction.

"Then…who did?" Sasuke asked, sounding like he still couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was almost a whisper, but everyone heard it.

"Care to take a guess?"

At the outskirts of the village of Konoha, two dark figures slowly approached the initial lookout post. Wearing strange, woven conical hats on their heads that shrouded their faces in shadow and long black cloaks that covered almost all of their bodies, hardly any skin was visible to the outside world. One was very tall, with a long wrapped object strapped to their back. The other was a good deal shorter, and bore no such load. They walked slowly, assuredly, their sandaled feet drifting over the gravel-strewn ground soundlessly.

"You know, it didn't go so well the last time we tried to get the nine-tails brat," the tall one said in a grating voice. "He's not any less well-guarded, either. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Do not question me," a low, smooth baritone admonished from underneath the large hat of the smaller figure. The air around him seemed to drop several degrees. The other man didn't seem to be bothered by this, though—instead, he chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands out in a placating gesture.

"Alright, fine, let's go." Razor teeth were bared in a wide grin. "Let's get the brat."

Small bells chimed in the wind, covered by the subtle sound of flapping cloaks.


End file.
